Two governors issue emergency orders; hurricane warning in place for Florida

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9/3/2004

The governors
of both Georgia and Florida have declared states of emergency in preparation
for the arrival of Hurricane Frances.

As of late
Thursday afternoon The Associated Press reported that 2.5 million people were
being evacuated in anticipation of the storm.

The Georgia
order, issued Thursday, Sept. 2 by Gov. Sonny Perdue, is primarily a precaution
designed “to prepare for possible damage and localized flooding, and to prevent
price gouging of Georgians, and evacuated Floridians, in need of gas, food,
lodging, and other supplies,” the governor’s office said in a statement. It
lasts through Sept. 7.

The Florida
order, issued Wednesday, Sept. 1, by Gov. Jeb Bush, is much more specific,
because that state is more likely to bear the full brunt of the storm. It
authorizes forced evacuations, already under way, and also authorizes local
officials to reverse the traffic flow of highway lanes if necessary to evacuate
residents before the storm hits.

Bush’s order
also authorizes the state’s Department of Transportation to waive the
collection of tolls, and to suspend size and weight restrictions on trucks
carrying emergency equipment needed to cope with storm damage.

A similar order
was already in place for trucks carrying equipment and supplies for the cleanup
of damage from Hurricane Charley, which hit he state just two and a half weeks
ago.

Bush’s order
may last up to 60 days if necessary to aid the cleanup effort.

A hurricane
warning was issued Thursday, Sept. 2, for the entire east coast of Florida by
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Earlier in the
day, NOAA placed the storm at 410 miles off the southeast Florida coast, moving
toward the state at 13 mph.

As of mid-afternoon Thursday, Frances was
listed as a Category 4 storm, with sustained winds at the center of 145 mph and
hurricane-force winds – at least 74 mph sustained winds – in an area nearly 160
miles wide, NOAA reported in a storm warning. Tropical storm force winds extend
across an area up to 370 miles wide.

Forecasters have said that Frances could
morph into a Category 5 storm, which would mean it would have sustained wind
speeds of at least 156 mph. In
addition, NOAA expects a storm surge of 6 to 11 feet above normal tide levels,
with “large and dangerous battering waves” on top of the surge.

The storm could bring massive wind damage
and potentially deadly flooding to an area already damaged and soaked by the
previous storm, which hit the state with 145 mph winds Aug. 13. That storm,
which came in from the western, Gulf of Mexico side of the state, crossed the
center of Florida, hitting the Atlantic side somewhere around Daytona Beach.
Frances is approaching from the southeast, having passed near Puerto Rico, and
forecasters think it could hit the state anywhere between Miami and the Georgia
border.

If Frances does hit Florida, it would be
the first since 1950 that time two major storms have struck the state in one
hurricane season.